Health roundup: Active brains stay sharp longer

New research in Chicago says reading, writing and otherwise challenging the mind, like this woman is doing with a puzzle, can preserve memory later in life. CAROLYN KASTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Reading, writing and otherwise engaging your brain, in childhood and as an older adult, could help preserve memory and stave off dementia, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Neurology.

The study, conducted by Robert S. Wilson and colleagues at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, involved testing older people, while also asking them about their reading habits throughout their lives.

A total of 294 people were tested every year for six years. They answered questionnaires about whether they read books, wrote and took part in other "mentally stimulating" activities during childhood, adolescence, middle age and at their current age.

After they died, at an average age of 89, their brains were examined for evidence of dementia. Such signs could include lesions, brain plaques and tangles, areas in which brain proteins have collapsed into twisted strands instead of orderly tracks.

People who took part in mentally stimulating activities both early and late in life showed a lower rate of memory decline than those who didn't take part in such activities.

STAY HOME FOR A WALK

Exercise is good for everyone, at all ages. But for people with certain ailments, it can be logistically difficult.

Patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD), narrowing of the arteries in the legs and pelvis, find it painful to walk for long distances; the pain normally subsides with rest.

Authors of a study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association say it's tough for these patients to get to exercise centers for supervised exercise. Also, much of the time these therapy sessions aren't covered by insurance.

But the study, conducted at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, found that a supervised treadmill regimen done at home, combined with a weekly group meeting, helped patients get in better shape.

PAD patients who stayed on the program for six months improved their six-minute walking distance from 1,173 feet to 1,312 feet (an increase of 11.8 percent), compared with the control group, which improved from 1,123 feet to 1,159 feet (3.2 percent). They also improved their maximum walking distance from 7.91 minutes to 9.44 minutes (an increase of 19.3 percent), compared with the control group going from 7.56 minutes to 8.09 minutes (7 percent). The intervention group's amount of pain-free walking time also increased.

HELPING DOCTORS LIKE SMALL TOWNS

It's a challenge to get the best doctors to work in the smallest American towns. A new study published Wednesday in JAMA Surgery might show one way: Give them some Mayberry time during their residency.

The study, led by Dr. Karen Deveney at Oregon Health and Science University, noted that more surgical residents are choosing to stay in urban or metropolitan practices and go into specialties, instead of choosing to become rural general surgeons.

But doctors who spent one year of their residency in rural areas, under a special program, were more likely to enter general surgery practice than those who didn't take part in the program. They also were more likely to choose to practice in a city with a population of less than 50,000 – not necessarily the place where they did their rural residency, but maybe some other small town.

NIGHT SHIFTS AND BREAST CANCER

Women who worked the night shift for more than 30 years had twice the risk of developing breast cancer than those who don't work late, according to research conducted in Canada and published online this week in the British Medical Journal.

The researchers' theory is that women who work odd hours – like nurses, office cleaners and call-center staffers – labor exclusively under artificial lighting. The theory goes that this form of lighting inhibits the production of melatonin, a hormone responsible for sleeping and waking, and which some experts say can prevent cancer.

Shift work has been associated with elevated risk of breast cancer before, but many studies have been done on nurses, not the general population. The new study, conducted in Ontario and British Columbia, looked at 1,134 women with breast cancer and 1,179 who had never been diagnosed.

About one-third of the women had done night-shift work at some point in their lives. The women who had worked regularly at night for less than 30 years didn't have a higher association of breast cancer.

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